Project Overview
What?
Launched in 2006, Fight with Insight was established in the city with the vision that “every child grows up in a child friendly city with courageous communities that cherish the promise of a joy-filled childhood.”
In order to achieve this vision, Fight with Insight established a boxing gym in the city of Johannesburg, to create a safe place for children. Through the gym, we connect children to an integrated child development programme with a fun focus on fitness, food, and functional feelings. We do this in the context of family, friends, and a courageous community of care:
Fitness: Body Weight training, Running and the Discipline of Boxing
Food: REAL food, cooking classes, nutrition support programme
Friends & family: Creating a Positive Peer Culture, youth council
Feelings: Psychosocial & educational support programme
Fun: Children’s Occupation is Play
In (2019) directed by Jennifer Matibi (one of the regular gym members) the team introduced a new project named ‘Nirvana’ which is a community-based initiative for young girls and women in inner- city Hillbrow, Berea, Yeoville and surrounds. The project focuses on allowing young girls and women to realize their potential, improve their motivation and build themselves up in their communities.
The programmes take place at the Children’s Memorial Institute.
Outcome?
Fight with Insight contributes positively to healthy lifestyles and sustainable communities for children and youth in the inner city of Johannesburg. It is one of the few programmes that focuses on the boy child without excluding the girl child. The gym has created a space where young people from all backgrounds and abilities can come together to think and share experiences in a way that promotes greater social cohesion and equality across race, gender, and ability. Young people receive integrated physical and mental well-being services, which allows them to move beyond a state of survival and into a state in which they are able to think about their future and how they are in relation to others. Fight with Insight has achieved an exceptionally strong youth leadership component, which has contributed to the increasing relevance and growth of the programme.
Contact Fight with Insight
CMI Building
Gate 13, Cnr Empire and Hill Rd Parktown, 2193
Sheri Errington
+27 83 280 9613
Website: www.fightwithinsight.co.za